History: The first Jewish bullfighter in the world was also gay

[xchrom]

http://outsports.com/jocktalkblog/2012/01/25/history-the-first-jewish-bullfighter-in-the-world-was-also-gay/



An exhibit has opened in Israel highlighting Jewish athletes who competed prior to the state’s founding in 1948 and one of the most interesting deals with Sidney Franklin, who became the first American and first Jewish bullfighter in the world in 1923.

“It is no coincidence that very little has been heard up to now about the amazing story of the Jewish bullfighter who captured the Spanish people’s heart,” says the exhibition’s curator, sports journalist Adi Rubinstein. “He just did not fit in with the commonly accepted image of the weak, puny Jew from the ghetto who always gets beaten up by the gentiles.”

The exhibit in Tel Aviv is designed to show that Jews in that era weren’t all weak. Franklin was such an accomplished bullfighter that Ernest Hemingway praised his skill. He was also gay, but was not public about it, according to Rubinstein.

“He was an iconoclast who chose to lead a life that was far removed from what his Orthodox-Jewish parents wanted for him. He captured the entire world as well as the hearts of both women and men.”

[joeybee12]

1. There's a movie in there...knr

[xchrom]

2. isn't there though? nt